Citizens in Charge

Oklahoma’s initiative requires the highest number of signatures be collected in the second shortest time period in the country, making it the hardest state process to use. The process is so restricted that only two citizen initiatives have made it on the ballot in the last ten years!

The process got a little bit easier back in December thanks to a ruling from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals striking down Oklahoma’s ban on out-of-state circulators. Now, there two bills in the state Senate and one in the House aimed at opening up the process even further.

SJR 13 would amend the state constitution to lower the percentage of sugnatures required from 15% for a constitutional amendment and 10% for a statutory change to 10% and 8% respectively. SB 852 makes several changes including extending the circulation period from 90 days to one year. Both of these bills are sponsored by Sen. Randy Brogdon.

HB 2246, sponsored by Rep. Randy Terrill, is similar to SB 852 but goes even further in clearing up the gist statement and providing for a circulator registration regime as recommended by the 10th Circuit Court.

Passage of these bills would do wonders for putting Oklahoma citizens in charge of their government.

Update:

The provision of SJR 13 that would have lowered the signature requirement was taken off of that bill in a Senate committee.